Page 106 of Brutal Kingdom

He looks unruffled by my threat. “Lemme guess. Kitty Kat told you I was mean to her. She can dish it out, but can’t take it, huh?”

I shove him again. “This has nothing to do with Tabitha and you know it.”

“Then what the hell are you so mad about?”

His brows furrow, and if I didn’t know what a great actor he is, I’d believe he’s truly confused. “Don’t even try to play innocent man. I know you, and I know your bullshit attempts to look innocent.”

He looks down at my hands, then back up at me. “And you also know that I don’t let people put their hands on me, but I’m giving you a pass because you’re my best friend.”

“Best friend?” I spit out. “A best friend wouldn’t be sneaking into town to fuck my girl behind my back.”

“Your girl? Bella?” He snorts. “Please. I’d rather my dick fall off, like Tabitha’s always saying. In fact, I’d rather get strapped to a chair, with no anesthesia, and let Tabby cut it off with a rusty saw.”

Okay, now that’s just tragic and gruesome, but I agree with it all when it comes to Bella. “Cut the bullshit, Simon. You know I’m talking about Jordy!”

“Jor- Jordanna? You think I came to town to fuck her?”

“You were with her, at the dugout, and before you try to deny it, I saw you.”

“Good.” He nods, a smile on his face.

“Good? What the hell, man?”

Tapping my hand, he says, “You can let me go now. Pussy move by the way, attacking me in the middle of the night, like this. You know I’m not banging Jordanna.” He gives me a pointed look, waiting for me to release my grip. “I wouldn’t dothatto you.”

I drop my hands, taking a step back. Simon’s mean and vindictive when he wants to be, but he’s never gone out of his way to be that type of asshole to me. We’ve argued and we’ve come to blows, but it’s never been about a girl. I want to believe him, but I know what I saw.

“Then what are you doing with her?”

“It’s… complicated.”

He’s the master of evasiveness, but I don’t have the patience for his shit today. “Then uncomplicate that shit.Fast.”

There’s never been a shortage of guys interested in Jordanna. Between her ex and me, she hasn’t spent too much time single. But, Simon has a special skill set. One that matches mine. And he’s never, and I do meannever,met a woman that hasn’t fallen for his misunderstood genius by day. Sex god by night routine. He and I share a lot of the same qualities. She fell for me and loves the twisted shit I do to her body. It’s a no brainer she’d go for Simon too.

Walking away from me, he says, “I’ll answer your questions. But not out here.”

FORTY-ONE

LOGAN

I’m waiting for him to talk, but he’s sitting here staring at his phone. “What’s going on Simon?”

“I don’t know where to start.”

“Why don’t you start with how you know Jordanna.”

“I met her when she was investigating her stepfather.”

I stare in shock silence at the person I’ve known and trusted my whole life, wondering how I missed the signs. Sure it would’ve been easy to fool me when he was out of town, and he’s stayed away, a lot. But the times we got together and talked, never once did I suspect anything like this. He’s telling me he and Jordy have been friends for years. “You knew her when she went to Carryville? How?”

“My grandmother was losing money on investments and nobody understood why. She was careful about trades and used the same company for years. And then I found out she jumped on the advice of certain men in town and she invested with Penn’s hedge fund.”

I didn’t know about that either.

“I started looking into it around the same time Jordanna was writing her article. It was a fluke, really. I was at Penn’s office on the same day Jordanna was and some cute little office aide assumed I was writing a paper on him, too. I looked into her, and found out where she went to school, who her friends were. You know me and secrets. I had a feeling Penn was up to no good, but I didn’t have the access I needed, so I was gonna use Jordanna to get it. I arranged for my roommate and I to run into her friends. He hit it off with Marina and I thought that was my in. Then one day, Jordanna had an issue with a file she downloaded from Penn’s server. She thought she corrupted it and asked my roommate to work on it. He’s not as good as I am, so I offered to do it for him.”

“It wasn’t corrupted.”

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